This began in another thread but I though it deserved it's own.Really I think we almost need two categories. Least enjoyed for personal taste reasons or whatever and worst performance.

Least enjoyed for me was wayyy back I got talked into going to see "Hewey Lewis and the News". They played OK and the crowd didn't rebel or anything but the band didn't change a single nuance from their album versions for the live show. It was like listening to the radio for an hour and a half and since they were already overplayed on the radio, I simply didn't get the concert high feeling at all.

Worst performance.I saw Ted Nugent open for another band in Montreal when I fulfilled a childhood dream to see the visual circus that is KISS when they perform in their full makeup. The sound was simply awful for all three of the opening bands. Worst I ever heard. Ted's voice managed to crack and go off key almost every song. He only got boos until he went on a Rant and lectured all the French Canadians in the audience to speak English when they visit the United States. Then it got nasty. He finished his set but I don't know if he made it out of the building alive.

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With great power comes Awesome irresponsibility.

I've been racking my brain to think of a bad concert I've seen. Either I do a good job of picking them, or my brain is so good at repressing bad memories that no obvious candidates are coming to mind.

I did see Tori Amos and Alanis Morrissette on a double bill where I was pretty indifferent to Tori, much preferring Alanis.

On a much smaller scale, there was a band I saw at the 40 Watt Club back in Athens called Hillbilly Frankenstein. They weirded me out when they rubbed pieces of fried chicken over some lingerie-clad ladies. Then they tried to play their instruments with the chicken, using drumsticks as bows and, well, drum sticks ...

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"The Universe is the game of the self, which plays hide and seek forever and ever" - Alan Watts

I saw Hewey Lewis & the News live for the first time last year and I enjoy it a lot, actually I wasn’t expecting much but who knew, he have a great band w/ very good musicians. And I agree with Murph, they played almost everything by the book.

Now, the worst performance & least enjoyed concert I’ve been to belong to the same band: KISS, back in ‘87 or ’88, it was just awful. To be fair, I‘ve never been into glamour/hair/pop/whatelse rock.

Doc, I had Tori Amos ‘92 album, cant recalled the name. It was one of my fav albums for a while. But I would never go to a live concert of hers, it’s just not the kind of music I like to hear in a live concert... Although the venue would by filled w/ chicks...:P

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The sailor does not pray for wind, he learns to sail. --Lindborg

I saw Rod Stewart about 8 years ago in Houston at the Cynthia Woods Pavilion (outdoors). His singing was awful and the music was so soft that you could talk in a normal tone to the person sitting next to you and hear the conversation perfectly. I guess they were REALLY worried about violating a noise ordinance.

I do now recall a really annoying sound system problem at a Yes concert back around 1991. It was in an amphitheater in NC, and for those of us way back in the lawn, the sound system was not synced up properly. What I mean is that the sound would be played simultaneously through all the speakers, so that my friend and I would hear the lawn speakers first, as they were only 50 feet or so away. Then we would hear the same noise from the stage speakers a couple of hundred feet away.

They opened with "Yours Is No Disgrace", which accentuated the echo:

bompBomp, baBabaBa bompBompbompBomp, baBabaBa bompBomp

instead of

Bomp, BaBa BompBomp, BaBa Bomp

etc.

It took about 5-10 really annoying minutes for someone to realize this and delay the lawn speakers appropriately. After that, great sound, great musicianship, great concert.

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"The Universe is the game of the self, which plays hide and seek forever and ever" - Alan Watts

I used to be a big Head East fan back in the 70's. However, after their hay day, I once saw them at a local bar here in Des Moines and was saddened by what I heard. Granted, the original band was not in tact, and they were older and out of practice.

I can’t think of a bad performance but the worst concert experience was seeing Peter Paul and Mary at the Greek Theater in Hollywood. PPM were great but this jerk sitting just in front of my friend and I took offence that a couple of Marines would come see them. Ran his mouth for a while before his girlfriend got him to shut up. On the way out he made a point to catch up to us and start mouthing off again. We ignored him until he grabbed my shoulder to spin me around. Somehow he broke his arm and probably some ribs.

I saw Joan Jett and the blackhearts in topeka back in the late 80s (when the mtv video was a concert clip). The sound system was obscenely loud and clipped almost continuously. The opening act cursed more than they sang and JJ's performance just kind of laid there. It was another instance of being just like the album. There's a point in the video where she takes off her jacket and heaves it into the audience- so I was watching and waiting, and was neither surprised nor dissapointed when she heaved her jacked up in the air and directly...behind her. What a bunch of cheap bastards, I thought.

A couple years ago I saw Rebecca st. James in Wichita and was all excited as I'd seen her in the 90's when she was coming up and she killed. Not this time- again with the clipping of house sound. It was so bad I couldn't tell what song she was doing- and I know all her songs. There were a LOT of pre teen girls there and I cringed at what was being done to their hearing. Looking back I should have bitched to someone.

An now for the one that got away. Had tickets to see Rush in KC. in the early 90's, on a weeknight, in winter. You guessed it- worst ice storm in years, people died. I declined the gamble.

I worked security at a Sha Na Na concert in the mid 70s, The lead singer, I think he called himself Bowser, thought it would be fun to insult some bikers who were at the concert. It was a lousey night keeping the pissed off bikers from getting on to the stage as he continued to insult them.

Autechre at the Metro in Chicago about 6-7 years ago. The Metro has no seating, but a sloped floor instead. I'm only 5'2", so the best place for me to see anything was to stand in the back. However, the place was SO filled with cigarette smoke, I don't think I could have lasted more than an hour back there. I've got terrible allergies, and can normally handle going to clubs, but this place seemed to have no ventilation whatsoever! So, my friend & I managed to squeeze our way near the front of the stage where the air was better, but there was speaker in the way of my view.

Then I had some a**hole who insisted on dancing all over the place, constantly bumping into me, while at the same time chain smoked and almost burnt me with his cigarette! If that wasn't bad enough, I had to stand in that same spot for 4 straight hours! That's right...it turned out not being just an Autechre concert (as I thought), but some "dance party" with other performers as well. I'm not sure how it was advertised, but the tickets only said "Autechre" and the show was to start at 10PM.

Autechre didn't appear on stage until a little past midnight and played til 2AM. Up until that time, the music pretty much sucked to be quite honest. At least I could SEE Autechre because their setup was really close to the front of the stage. However, there still wasn't a nice view of the gear, no visuals or even fancy lighting. All they did was twiddle knobs while drinking beer and smoking cigarettes. At least their music was good, but damn...that was one of the longest nights of my life!